Sponsored by
Man cleared of £2.6m drugs plot
A MAN has been cleared of smuggling cocaine with a street value of more than £2.6m into the UK hidden inside hollowed-out books sent in a package from Ecuador.
Felix Kalu, 26, also known as Richard Agwu, was unanimously found not guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday of fraudulently evading importation regulations in November last year.
The drugs weighing 2kg were discovered by a customs officer
at Gatwick Airport inside three books in the package in transit via Barbados to be delivered by a courier firm.
Initially the package was addressed to a shop in London but the firm received a call redirecting it to a Samuel Jones in Salisbury Grove, Armley, Leeds.
The cocaine was replaced with salt and two undercover police officer posed as employees of the courier service to make the delivery to the address where Kalu was living and he accepted he signed for the package.
The cocaine seized was between 80-85 per cent purity and had a street value of 2,667,400.
Kalu denied he had known the package contained cocaine and
said he was asked as a favour to sign for it by another man, Mikey Roger, who was sharing the house with him.
He told Philip Morris, who was defending him, that he understood the package contained an encyclopaedia and maintained he had been taken advantage of by Mr Roger and was not involved in the smuggling.
After the case a police spokesman confirmed West Yorkshire police were trying to trace a Nigerian in his 30s known as Mikey Roger, who is thought to have connections in Wakefield, Leeds, Leicester and London.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
